The
most important of these are quoted in the note to the above passage.
most important of these are quoted in the note to the above passage.
Ben Jonson - The Devil's Association
(4) The chief motive is in the spirit of Aristophanes,
the great master of personal satire. These methods are what we should
naturally expect in a composition of this sort. Of such internal
evidence we find little or nothing in _The Devil is an Ass_. Several
plausible identifications, however, have been proposed, and these we
must consider separately.
The chief characters are identified by Fleay as follows: Wittipol is
Jonson. He has returned from travel, and had seen Mrs. Fitzdottrel
before he went. Mrs. Fitzdottrel is the Lady Elizabeth Hatton.
Fitzdottrel is her husband, Sir Edward Coke.
=Mrs. Fitzdottrel=. The identification is based upon a series of
correspondences between a passage in _The Devil is an Ass_ (2. 6.
57-113) and a number of passages scattered through Jonson's works.
The
most important of these are quoted in the note to the above passage. To
them has been added an important passage from _A Challenge at Tilt_,
1613. Fleay's deductions are these: (1) _Underwoods 36_ and _Charis_
must be addressed to the same lady (cf. especially _Ch. _, part 5). (2)
Charis and Mrs. Fitzdottrel are identical. The song (2. 6. 94 f. ) is
found complete in the _Celebration of Charis_. In Wittipol's preceding
speech we find the phrases 'milk and roses' and 'bank of kisses', which
occur in _Charis_ and in _U. 36_, and a reference to the husband who
is the 'just excuse' for the wife's infidelity, which occurs in _U.
36_. (3) Charis is Lady Hatton. Fleay believes that _Charis_, part
1, in which the poet speaks of himself as writing 'fifty years', was
written c 1622-3; but that parts 2-10 were written c 1608.
the great master of personal satire. These methods are what we should
naturally expect in a composition of this sort. Of such internal
evidence we find little or nothing in _The Devil is an Ass_. Several
plausible identifications, however, have been proposed, and these we
must consider separately.
The chief characters are identified by Fleay as follows: Wittipol is
Jonson. He has returned from travel, and had seen Mrs. Fitzdottrel
before he went. Mrs. Fitzdottrel is the Lady Elizabeth Hatton.
Fitzdottrel is her husband, Sir Edward Coke.
=Mrs. Fitzdottrel=. The identification is based upon a series of
correspondences between a passage in _The Devil is an Ass_ (2. 6.
57-113) and a number of passages scattered through Jonson's works.
The
most important of these are quoted in the note to the above passage. To
them has been added an important passage from _A Challenge at Tilt_,
1613. Fleay's deductions are these: (1) _Underwoods 36_ and _Charis_
must be addressed to the same lady (cf. especially _Ch. _, part 5). (2)
Charis and Mrs. Fitzdottrel are identical. The song (2. 6. 94 f. ) is
found complete in the _Celebration of Charis_. In Wittipol's preceding
speech we find the phrases 'milk and roses' and 'bank of kisses', which
occur in _Charis_ and in _U. 36_, and a reference to the husband who
is the 'just excuse' for the wife's infidelity, which occurs in _U.
36_. (3) Charis is Lady Hatton. Fleay believes that _Charis_, part
1, in which the poet speaks of himself as writing 'fifty years', was
written c 1622-3; but that parts 2-10 were written c 1608.
